JAKARTA - The president of the Napoli club, Aurelio De Laurentiis, is considering using the name Diego Maradona as the name of their stadium in honor of the megastar's services to the club.
The mayor of Naples, Luigi De Magistris, also supports the idea. The current name of the Napoli stadium is San Paolo. De Laurentiis said he would discuss the name of their stadium, to be combined with the name Maradona.
Maradona grieved the football world on Wednesday when he died aged 60 of a heart attack. The Argentine legend has been seriously ill since early November, and was forced to undergo surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain earlier in the month.
"We can consider the idea of calling our stadium San Paolo-Diego Armando Maradona," said De Laurentiis, as quoted by French sports channel RMC Sport on Thursday, November 26.
"Diego Armando Maradona, the greatest footballer of all time, Diego has died."
"He made our people dream, he defended Napoli with his genius. In 2017 Diego became a citizen of our honor, Neapolitan and Argentina, you gave us joy and happiness. Napoli love you!"
Maradona first arrived at Napoli in the summer of 1984 after defending Barcelona. He made an immediate impact in his first season, scoring 14 Serie A goals to finish behind Michel Platini and Alessandro Altobelli as the league's top scorer as Napoli finished eighth.
However, he led Napoli to become champions of the Italian league in 1986-67 and repeated this feat in the 1989-90 season.
In total, the Argentine spent six seasons with Napoli and left the club in his seventh season after testing positive for cocaine.
He played a total of 259 games for Napoli, scored 115 goals and is still revered 30 years after leaving the Italian club.
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